Diploma in Agricutlural Extension Services for Input Dealers (DAESI)

Objectives

Orientation of input dealers on location-specific crop production technologies of broad-based agriculture with reference to field problems.

Building the capacity of input dealers in efficient handling of Inputs.

To impart knowledge about the laws governing regulation of agricultural Inputs.

To make input dealers an effective source of farm information at the village level (one stop shop) for the farmers.

Scope of Input Dealers into Para Extension Professionals

In India, there are about 2.82 lakh practicing agri-input dealers, who are the prime source of farm information to the
farming community. The first contact point for majority of farmers is the agri-input dealer. While purchasing different inputs
required for farming operations, the farmer naturally tries to find out from the input dealer about the usage of inputs,
both in terms of quality and quantity. However, most of these input dealers do not have formal agricultural education.
If these input dealers can be shaped as para-extension professionals by providing requisite knowledge, they can
professionalise extension services and contribute to bring a paradigm shift in Indian Agriculture. It is in this context,
the National Institute of Agriculture Extension Management (MANAGE) had designed a one-year diploma course titled ‘Diploma in
Agricultural Extension Services for Input Dealers (DAESI)’, which imparts relevant and location-specific agricultural education to
equip these input dealers with sufficient knowledge to transform them into para-extension professionals so as to enable
them to address the day-to-day problems being faced by the farmers at field level. MANAGE had launched DAESI program in the
year 2003 and so far covered the practicing input dealers of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Orissa,
Jharkhand, and West Bengal.